Relative abundance and activity patterns of wild felids in Chimalapas rainforest, Oaxaca, Mexico

Resumen

The Chimalapas forests in Oaxaca, Mexico, still maintain populations of wild felids despite increased anthropogenic threats. These species have an important ecological role as predators within the carnivore assemblage. Nevertheless their distribution and population status is unknown in this region. From 2009 to 2013 we collected field data of wild felids to assess their conservation status that included presence, relative abundance, activity patterns, and population structure. We collected data during five different sampling periods using 30 camera traps per sampling period. We had a sampling effort of 9,000 trap days and estimated an index of relative abundance (IRA) of 0.44 for Herpailurus yagouaroundi, 0.55 for Leopardus wiedii, 0.66 for Puma concolor, 1.55 for Panthera onca, and 3.22 for Leopardus pardalis. L. pardalis was the species with the highest number of independent records (n = 29) while P. concolor and P. onca were absent during the first two years of sampling. Most felid individuals were identified to gender and age class. Three types of activity patterns were recorded, with L. pardalis being active during all day (24 hrs), H. yagouaroundi was diurnal, while L. wiedii and P. onca were mostly nocturnal and P. concolor was crepuscular. We conclude that environmental education, regulation of subsistence hunting, establishment of a source-sink system, a livestock losses compensation program and payments for environmental services are essential for the conservation of wild felids in this priority region.